International order always has many unknowns ahead of them. For a reason, the global scene is considered to be the most mysterious in social life and hard to know.
The top origin of uncertainty and risk, however, is not the very nature of this sphere of reality, but the ignorance accompanying its knowledge. It affects broad political circles, media commentaries, and even the university community Many observers of global relations are subject to various pressures and economics. alternatively of seeking the truth, they are conscious of creating false diagnosis, biased recommendations, and misleading visions. In consequence to political demand, they reject uncomfortable knowledge, apply various ambiguities, euphemisms, bypass taboo themes. As a result, the discrimination between cognition and ignorance, fact and falsehood fades.
The most harm is caused by commenting on current global events by incompetent or little intelligent politicians. Just sitting in parliament does not make all MPs and senators prominent and versatile experts of anything. It blows with horror erstwhile self-proclaimed pseudoauthorites show up in various media communications, which have no material preparation, but have the nerve and no unreasonable belief of their amateur wisdom. They do not realize norms that order global reality, nor do they control dissonances between the planet of work and real existence. They besides claim to be critical and moralistic instruction towards others – especially Russia and Belarus – as is due to megalomaniacism and boastfulness.
A complete disengagement from the reality can be seen clearly on the example of the turmoil surrounding the credibility of NATO and America's alliance commitments, around Ukrainian disinformation campaigns, for which only Russia is blamed, around western historical amnesia and many media manipulations, for example around Israel. The promotion of ignorance facilitates the deception of various phenomena and processes. Simply callback the political, media and academic discourse on human rights that function in the ideological and propaganda sphere, but are rather detached from the reality. These attitudes are accompanied by blindness towards imperialistic practices in the past and now, a selective approach to oppressive systems, the silence of bright forms of discrimination and exploitation.
Manipulation Anatomy
Another example of a lie is telling citizens that Poland is sovereign and independent as never before, while in modern global order no state exercises truly the highest, indivisible power that legal and political definitions require. Untruth is besides sovereign equality of states, as the United Nations Charter suggests. State sovereignty so exists only due to ignorance about its empirical reality. Defenders of full sovereignty and independency deny themselves due to the fact that at the same time they respect the powerful function of networks and markets, kneel before the power of large corporations, and participate straight or indirectly in various interventions in the interior affairs of another states.
Giving meaning to phenomena and processes means in many cases escaping cognition and information. This is for 2 different reasons. Either a given realm of reality is not recognized by nature (ontological ignorance), or cognitively unavailable ( epistemological ignorance). The main problem in learning about global relations is that researchers for nonsubjective reasons (e.g. deficiency of access to data) are incapable to penetrate the "nature of things", or consciously or involuntaryly keep ignorance, reaching for myths, simplifications, understatements and silences.
Most frequently specified activity is of a purposeful nature, enhanced by partiality and calculation. It is not essential to convince anyone that if the areas of ignorance truly began to be abolished, even if it were about the character of the political government in Ukraine (corruption, theft of national assets, depopulation, murderism, shameful cult of criminals), then the full construction of false narrative, justifying the immense aid provided by the West to the Ukrainian soldate in Kiev, could collapse.
It is not actual that all nation has the exclusive right to cultivate the memory of its heroes, even erstwhile they were criminals. After planet War II, the Western community developed many rules, internalized in various countries and regions of the world, so as to never again let ideology and regimes to approve genocide. Although humanitarian disasters inactive neglect to be prevented, today's core of the West (the NATO State and the European Union) inactive adheres to these values, at least declaratively. For this reason, the president of Poland is right that Ukraine has no chance of entering Western communities with its pantheon of criminals and cult of barbarism.
In modern global studies utilizing the achievements of social constructivism, it is proved that the global order (or, in fact, its image) is based on fabricating false cognition or diverting attention from actual pathologies and concealing uncomfortable facts. The notorious liberal order, to which neophytes joined with zeal the governments of the post-communist states, was always based on subordination of the weaker towards the stronger and on acceptance of hidden and public forms of exploitation. However, everything was done on each side to present the image of globalised capitalism in the most favorable light possible. People were born to advancement in civilization, concealing fresh forms of dependence and submission.
The presentation of the structure of the global strategy consciously and deliberately obscured the asymmetry of power, and in fact the application of discrimination and double standards to "late-coming". During the period of systemic transformation, ignorance allowed us to escape from naming social sources of evil (imposing national property, poverty, dehumanization, exploitation) and from pointing out the guilty of this state of affairs. It so performed a protective function in the process of transformation. On the 1 hand, the deliberate actions of the fresh Comprador elites, and on the another hand the indifference and naivety of social groups, caused the processes of association and subsequent integration within the liberal order to take place in practice without much opposition. Resistant marginalized, and in utmost cases eliminated (in Poland the case of Andrzej Lepper). Only now is simply a slow awakening, but losses are irreparable.
Ignorance and its Effects
The ignorance mitigates the negative effects of cognitive dissonance against hypocrisy and contradictions between authorities' declarations and socio-economic realities. It undoubtedly promotes the interests of various privileged and influential actors. Dissemination of cognition of actual power mechanisms and external control processes could increase uncertainty and opposition and as a consequence chaos. So the rulers are doing a lot, especially with the usage of serviceable media, to make uncomfortable cognition of social pathologies subject to control and regulation. Hence strategies of authoritative silence and institutionalized amnesia.
Modern journalism is simply a joint "production of ignorance", which distracts from crucial or crucial matters, combats "inconvenient knowledge" and its constituents, promotes "new speech", reverses the meaning of terms and distorts rational reasoning. Mass media make an industrial scale of "information noise", disseminating trivial information and "alternative" facts.
A peculiar case from the Polish yard concerns the question of public assurance in political realism. Its supporters are being labeled recklessly, based on the mechanics of marking, discredit and stigmatisation. Strong historical reminiscences and prevailing rusophobia are driven by this trend of thinking, whose name is written on intent in quotes, or with the abbreviation ‘so-called’, towards the treacherous pro-Russian formation (‘tender’). This narrows its analytical usefulness and explaining value in relation to the game of large powers throughout history. Meanwhile, it is 1 of the oldest conceptualizations of global relations, whose sources date back to the ancient past of Tukidides and his “History of the Peloponnese War”. The theoretical accomplishment of political realism is undeniable.
Polish politicians and publicists most frequently do not know the agenda of 20th-century Anglo-Saxon realists, starting with Edward H. Carr, Hans Morgenthau or Kenneth Waltz. Instead, they give clear negative opinions about realistic thinking, being actually ignorant in this area. The Polish academic planet besides avoids reaching for theoretical constructions and methodological assumptions of political realism in order not to become the object of primitive criticism from ignorant people. A glorious exception is the publication of the prof. W. Julian Korab-Karpowicz entitled “Political Realism. evolutionary explanation of global relations” — SCHOLAR, 2026). Encouraging discussions around it could prevent a work from drowning in “the production of ignorance”.
The global order in conceptual and realization spheres always functions due to the fact that the dominant powers, subject to universalization their peculiar interests, strive to keep the global strategy in a comparative balance. Their hypocrisy and cynicism are that they exploit full communities of states for selfish purposes, subjecting them to security, the common good, peace or the protection of human rights. Liberal democracies do not disagree in this respect from non-democratic regimes.
Faith in the Capricious Hegemon
In the Polish political imagination on global relations, there is simply a constant longing for the established erstwhile and for all global order, which would guarantee the permanent anchoring of the state in safe and reliable alliances. specified reasoning is simply a historical and unfortunately is simply a product of ignorance. For all social order, including global order, as a closed set of values, standards and institutions that supply stableness and predictability, exists only in theory. In practice, we are dealing with a constantly changing environment in which the dynamics of geopolitical forces' systems determines strategical mobilisation, aimed at the maximum satisfaction of selfish interests.
In particular, non-mandatory countries are never certain of the phase of consolidation of the order they belong to. After years of comparative calm and stability, there is usually a accumulation of crisis situations that undermine the effectiveness of leadership and undermine the functionality of alliances. In order to remedy the negative phenomenon, participants' attention is shifted to external threats, and universal militarisation becomes a precedence phenomenon. erstwhile again, ignorance, which results in powerful, frequently unsuccessful, arms spending and attachment to “alternative” rivalry strategies, is one more time evident. In the case of Poland, only restoring normality in relations with Russia can limit the negative effects of irrationality in the behaviour of decision-makers.
Giving your destiny and safety into the hands of a capricious hegemon proves not only the deficiency of wise conclusions from history. It is besides evidence of self-deception and deep humiliation. The race of Polish notabs for the kindness of an oceanic protector on the stationing of American legions is simply a symptom of “collective infantilism”. After all, there is no request for peculiar proof that, by relying entirely on a abroad “insurance policy”, Polish politicians push Poland to support any scandals initiated by the US.
In addition to arms policy, ignorance combined with deficiency of imagination besides governs energy and food security, migration and border management. It is hard to realize the logic of the barricaded Poland from Russia and Belarus, while the border with Ukraine, which is at war, is simply a place of many silenced abuses, and the state is open to immigration as never before. Furthermore, there is simply a deficiency of political and expert debate on the harmful effects of unilateral addictions, and the dogmatisation of alliance loyalty "for good and bad" towards Ukraine makes the "register of ignorance" immune to changes and re-evaluation of the existing strategy.
Ignorance prevents appropriate designation of the nature of the liberal global order. Indeed, it is based on a community of interests of erstwhile colonial powers and violent empires whose practices towards conquered peoples were shameful. It was there that racism and all possible forms of oppression were born. Poland, which in its historical heritage cites its own values of tolerance, humanitarianism and solidarity, alternatively of distancing itself from the wickedness of ideas and institutions invented in the West, accepts them uncritically, which is undoubtedly the consequence of deep ignorance. It is not known whether the rulers realize that they take on the odium as deeds never committed by Poles.
Historical communicative trap
Being a primary associate in the settlement of crimes of totalitarian regimes – Nazism and Stalinism for many decades – Poland affirms the western communicative of triumph in planet War II. This results in the inclusion of Ukrainian war criminals, guilty of cultural cleansing in the Poles of Volyn and east Galicia. A imagination of an global order based on the heroization of criminals is always of a herniating and conflict-ogenic nature. Sooner or later, it will lead to another disaster in relations between the disputed parties. It is simply a pity that the Polish political elites of the 3rd Republic, stupidized by Russian-phobic propaganda over the years, led to disgrace of the memory of the victims of the bander genocide through indifference towards the authoritative cult of criminals in Ukraine, but on top of that, proceed to support the corrupt Kiev regime, which does not number with the sensitivity of Poles.
In view of Israel's genocide in Gaza and the discovery of massive corruption in Ukrainian power circles, the creation of an “alternative truth” was adopted almost throughout the West. The distraction and disregard of uncomfortable cognition is based on the emphasis of the "right of Israel to defend" and, in the case of Ukraine, the exaggeration of its function in the defence of the value of the "free world", which Ukraine itself has never respected or adhered to. Every critic of Israel is stigmatized as an “anti-semite”, and accusing Ukraine from a vending device acquires the name “agent Putin”. These are only 2 illustrations of how liberal order uses deliberate ignorance to obscure the fact about the criminal activities of governments and armies.
When thanks to the president Donald Trump. The idealization of liberal order has been abandoned, and it has turned out that there are no “values or principles” that have been “witched” for years of theirs and strangers. This does not mean, however, that Trump's populism does not scope out to akin ignorance practices that endanger their pushiness and deficiency of scruples. utilizing modern technologies of cognition generation (using artificial intelligence) there is an algorithmic selection of content and a clear blurring of the boundaries between fact and lie. In combination with the appalling incompetence of public officials, this leads to the dismantling of democratic constitutional bases – the regulation of law and the control of authorities.
Lies and nerve
Official propaganda refers to explicit conjecture and misconception, as illustrated by the statements of the highest officials with the president of the United States at the head, for example with respect to Iran. Referring in many cases to conspiracy leads serves ignorant people to avoid empirical evidence. The language of the public debate does not mention to elaborate rhetorical displays, but to trigger emotional reactions in society – to common insults, invectors and libel.
Fortunately, there are inactive decent people who exposure harmful manipulation and abuse of power. Through intellectual and civilian efforts, for example, American journalists revealed that the war against Iraq in 2003 was based on fabricated evidence and false allegations against Saddam Hussein possession of weapons of mass destruction. It is worth recalling the most celebrated signaler and whistleblower in history, Edward Snowden, which in 2013 exposed illegal surveillance practices and persecution of U.S. citizens in the press. Due to the migration crisis in Europe, many honest people have revealed a deep gap between the humanitarian rhetoric of EU governments and the maintenance of violent border regimes.
In conclusion, 1 can be tempted to claim that the modern global order, which is simply a mixture of disinvolvement and chaos, is the consequence of consciously constructed ignorance, systematic production of ignorance. The large powers inactive win under the banners of moral superiority and civilizational mission to mask contradictions between proclaimed postulates and actual, frequently shameful and harmful behaviors.
Prof. Stanisław Bielen
Think Poland, No. 23-24 (7-14.06.2026)
